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Subject: Market Farming
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Re: [Market-farming] Soy-free, Corn-free Chicken Feed: Why?
- From: "Beth Spaugh" <lists AT rhomestead.com>
- To: "'Market Farming'" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
- Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Soy-free, Corn-free Chicken Feed: Why?
- Date: Mon, 16 Aug 2010 22:44:11 -0400
I agree that marketing
meats is part of market farming. I did almost suggest that the person
asking join the American Pastured Poultry Producers Association (apppa.org) at
the higher level to have access to that listserv. There are feed
consultants on there and others who are grappling with trying to use non-GMO
feeds.
Beth Spaugh
Rehoboth Homestead, Peru, NY
Farm Fresh Food Club CSA - http://rhomestead.com
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Garden fresh vegetables, organically grown, and pastured
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- Frances Moore Lappe
From: market-farming-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:market-farming-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of KAKerby AT aol.com Sent: Monday, August 16, 2010 11:18 AM To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Soy-free, Corn-free Chicken Feed: Why? We also have gotten questions about whether we feed GMO-free crops at
market this year. While mouse droppings in grain isn't on the general
public's Top 10 list of concerns, GMO crops are starting to be. I can only
applaud that increased awareness even if there's still a need for some
reality-check education. We've been in the opposite situation of having to
justify why we're still using crops and feeds which may have been GMO
contaminated, rather than trying to "sell" people on the idea of why we should
switch to non-GMO. I've lost egg sales thanks to customers who are adamant
that they want non-GMO foods, who then go in favor of folks who advertise as
such. If we did a cold hard analysis of their feeds vs mine I suspect
there would be little difference. While we could argue over contamination
percentages and real vs perceived risk, those are still lost sales. We
were already looking for GMO alternatives for a variety of other
reasons, and that just cemented our commitment to find those
alternatives.
That being said, I have not yet found a packaged feed that successfully
avoids the Big Three GMO crops - soy, corn and canola. While the latter
isn't a huge ingredient in poultry feed, it has been used a lot in conditioning
oils for hoofed stock and we buy feed for a dozen different livestock
species. So we've been looking a lot at custom mixes and/or mixing our
own. There is a mill in western OR that we would love to work with but
they're too far away to realistically ship product all the way up here cost
effectively. If you've found a local mill that can provide such feed at a
competitive basis, I strongly believe the market for those non-GMO meats is only
going to increase. In fact if I had ready access to such feeds, I'd
include that in my marketing. I suspect you'll find less and less need to
explain the "why", while others (like us) will have to justify the "why
not". And at the end of the day I think that's probably actually a
positive development.
Now, so far this doesn't really have a lot to do with market farming I
suppose, since it's not strictly veggies production. But our ultimate
solution has been and continues to be, to grow as much of our own feeds as we
can. Along with that, we'd be growing and possibly selling small grains to
human consumers, which puts this squarely into a niche market via either
farmer's markets or CSA. We feel like we've been babes in the woods for
many years on the topic of small scale, small grains production, with precious
little info or interest available. But just in the last few years
there's been a huge increase in interest, not only in raising but also buying
such small scale production. I've fielded more requests for such purchases
from potential buyers this year than all the previous years combined. So
the topics of GMO-free feeds, and possible new income streams for a small scale
farm, are not very far removed and could ultimately complement each other.
Thank you for raising this question. I think this interest in, and
pursuit of, GMO-free food and feed, will only increase in the future.
Consider yourself poised on the threshold of being able to make the most of
that trend. Not a bad place to be.
Kathryn Kerby
frogchorusfarm.com
Snohomish, WA
In a message dated 8/15/2010 8:14:39 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
benjamin.l.wiener AT us.army.mil writes:
so switch to oats and wheat and fish or alfalfa meal. there is a sheep and goat ration mixer I found off the internet that lists all sorts of feed stuffs and you can play with it until you get the ration you want. google it. Frankly I think you're nuts. if fewer than 5% of samples contained more than .1% GMO, then there is more mouse droppings in the feed than GMO crops. get over it! |
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[Market-farming] Soy-free, Corn-free Chicken Feed: Why?,
Chrys Ostrander, 08/15/2010
- Re: [Market-farming] Soy-free, Corn-free Chicken Feed: Why?, Carla Shafer, 08/15/2010
-
Message not available
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Re: [Market-farming] Soy-free, Corn-free Chicken Feed: Why?,
Chrys Ostrander, 08/15/2010
- Re: [Market-farming] Soy-free, Corn-free Chicken Feed: Why?, Wiener, Benjamin L MAJ NG NG NGB, 08/15/2010
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Re: [Market-farming] Soy-free, Corn-free Chicken Feed: Why?,
Chrys Ostrander, 08/15/2010
- <Possible follow-up(s)>
-
Re: [Market-farming] Soy-free, Corn-free Chicken Feed: Why?,
KAKerby, 08/16/2010
-
Re: [Market-farming] Soy-free, Corn-free Chicken Feed: Why?,
Road's End Farm, 08/16/2010
- Re: [Market-farming] Soy-free, Corn-free Chicken Feed: Why?, Richard Stewart, 08/16/2010
- Re: [Market-farming] Soy-free, Corn-free Chicken Feed: Why?, Beth Spaugh, 08/16/2010
-
Re: [Market-farming] Soy-free, Corn-free Chicken Feed: Why?,
Road's End Farm, 08/16/2010
- Re: [Market-farming] Soy-free, Corn-free Chicken Feed: Why?, KAKerby, 08/16/2010
- Re: [Market-farming] Soy-free, Corn-free Chicken Feed: Why?, clearviewfarm, 08/16/2010
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